I have decided to make a build/mods thread for my slow stick. I have had quite a few different setups and motors on my plane. I have had it setup basically stock, ran 400, 450 and now a 480 class motor, batteries from 1300 mah 3 cell all the way up to a 2200. I have had it built with trike gear, braced the wing with dowels, had several different landing gear setups, and currently, a biplane. I have well over 200 flights on my first wing, and many as a bipe. This is just going to be for me to keep track of what worked, and what didn't. Soon I plan to add 4 aleroins, and maybe some video and/or night flying gear.

Results of a loose motor mount on a madien flight. This was a tower pro 2410 motor and a 1800mah battery with a 9 X 6 gws prop.

A couple of motors later, and with some heavy .40 size trike gear added. I also had problems keeping the landing gear together (as you can see by the added wire bracing). Still with a 1800mah battery. I am also using a 3/8" square dowel because my fuse kept splitting where I put the bolt for the motor mount.

After getting bored with that setup, I tried to do a mini ultra slow stick build, which ended in disaster. This is how I found out about the range problems with my dx6I.

I was getting quite a bit of flex out of the 3/8" square dowels. This made the trike gear hard to control, and also kept splitting the fuse on anything other then soft landings. While I was at a local hobby shop, I decided to get a 10mm thick walled carbon fiber fuse, as well as a bipe kit. I had a complete extra kit I bought for parts, so figured why not.

This setup had a flat top wing, stock bottom wing. A power up 450 sport motor(220watts or so), stock tail, but a bit longer fuse. Not wanting to drill holes in my $20 fuse, I added the stock fiberglass tail section and joiner, making this a very large plane. It is very intimidating next to a stock slow stick. I am not very happy with the landing gear, and am working on several idea's to modify or replace it. Although the bipe is a blast, this setup is quite a bit heavier. Takeoffs are quick, in less then a parking space. But all the added drag of the top wing makes it fly almost cartoonishly slow. Any throttle makes it ballon up badly, but this plane was incredibly stable and easy to control. The top speed of 30mph and lousy verticle made this plane not as much fun for "sport" flying. The only way to get it to loop was to spend quite a bit of time getting altitude, and then doing a full throttle dive and pulling up hard. It had enough power to do some high alpha, but would get locked into it under a stall. It was very scarey when the plane just dropped out of the sky backwards.

I decided the plane needed a bit more power. Not happy with anything smaller then a 450 class motor, I upgrded to the power up 480 sport from heads up rc. While I was waiting on parts, I decided it would be nice to add aleroins. I have made both wings flat using dowels. I currently am only usng the stock cut outs in the top wing. This didn't allow much of any roll, and required rudder for anything more then the most lazy of turns. I also upgraded the tail for the one off of the mini ultra slow stick project, to give a bit more throw and stability to the elevator. I just finished installing out custom motor mount for the larger motor. Having a 19 X25mm bolt patter, it was much too large for a regular gws 10mm stick mount.

As it sits right now, my motor is pulling 317watts off of a single 1800 mah battery. I should be able to get it into the 350watt range, but fear my older batteries are finally starting to run flat. The plan now is to run two 1800-2200mah 3 cells in parellel, or posibly buy more 3000mah 3 cells, or possibly even a bigger 4 cell. I also plan on taping the stock aleroins back together, trimming the backs of both wings until they are flat, and adding full strip aleroins to both wings. I may add bracing between the wings, but I plan on running 6 servo's. 4 for aleroins, and 2 for rudder/elevator.

I have been playing around with adding trike gear, and making the bottom of the wings flat. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Custom motor mount for the larger motor with 19X25mm motor mounting. You can also see my custom battery box. This will hold anything from a 1300-2200mah battery as well as some others, and only takes 1 rubber band and about 5 seconds to swap. No more worring about velcro.

That's interesting......although kinda redundant since there is a dedicated topic page and several off-shoots of tried and true info here at wattflyer....where it might have been better suited.......guess one got bored with the protocal and decided to refresh our memories.....lol

Actually, when I bought my bipe kit, it took me quite some time to find anything on it, other then through radical rc. I had never seen one, online or otherwise before I saw my kit. I was also told by everyone that a 1800-2200mah battery woulld be way too big to fly on. I also haven't seen anything on a trike geared slow stick. I have also never seen anyone run a 450 watt motor either. I have seen quite a few people put aleroins on their stick, but very few actually show what they've done, or report how it fly's after. And going through 200 pages looking for one mod is really, really annoying.

I know that a slow stick isn't earth shattering, and I am just wanting to share things that I know other people haven't done. Such as my battery boxes and motor mount.

From the list above, as you can see, there isn't much that hasn't been tried. That said, the majority opinion from those who enjoy relaxing, trouble free flight with average equipment, tend to stick with the milder, rudder only versions (and landing gear, brushless mods) since adding ailerons and reducing dihedral really does not improve the performance or flight time other than giving one a 4 channel experience and the confidence knowing that it will be squirelly (due to lack of weight and rigidity) and easy to repair after the inevitable mishaps you'll enjoy trying to fly it like a P-38 Warhawk......lol

After adding my bigger motor, motor mount, nose gear and aluminium main gear, plane is turning into a bit of a porker. With two 2200mah in parellel(4400mah), I am sitting near 44oz rtf weight. With only one 2200 its about 39oz with all other parts. I still have to modify the wings to add the strip aleroins and possibly factor in two more servo's if I go with 4 aleroins instead of just the top wing.

My nose gear setup is very heavy, as well as the plywood I added to mount it with. Still have to test it and add some 4" rear wheels instead of the 3" ones I have now. I think a 4" wheel brings me past the point of "lightweight" wheels. I may have a plastic nose gear mount built out of varying thicknesses until I find one that is plenty strong, as well as one to mount the main gear to. Plastic will be much lighter then the screw and plywood mount I think. It will also give me a lot more room for adjustments. I wan't. To run a 11-12" prop for max thrust, and a 10 X 5 to 10 X 7 for easy flying. Might stay with a smaller prop once I lighten her up a bit.

I might leave it as is when I get it flying, then worry about weight and looks once it flies well. Won't be a rocketship, the higher windloading and 55oz of thrust should make it a very capable flyer. I also don't think stability will be a problem at all, with how high of lift the wings are, and the low center of gravity, I doubt I will lose the pendulum effect of the slow stick.

I bought a new dx6i after loosing a new"new" ultra stick wing. the new radio seems to have fixed my range issues. its been pretty windy for a couple of weeks now, but I've decided to dust off the bipe and get it going again. I plan on using a single 4000mah 3 cell. hoping to extend both flight times and performance a bit. finally ran up my new 480 motor. with a 11/7 prop its actually quite scarey. the motor mount and carbon fiber fuse seem to be holding up well though.

I've decided to build it up and get it ready to fly as only a 3 channel plane for now. the added complexity of alleroins to two wings is just too time consuming. so I will build up another stock blue wing I bought at a yard sale, then run another yellow wing off of my other slow stick until I get everything tuned in. then I think I'm going to stick to only one modded wing.

the landing gear is about done, just have to add a servo for nose gear.

I've been doing some thinking and slow sticking more. I miss my bipe and need to get it going again. I have decided on a couple quick changes.

right now I am planning to ditch the 480 motor. I really bought it for my mini contender, and want to free that motor up. instead I am going to go with two 450slow fly motors from heads up. the overall idea is to use the bipe kit as a pylon for the two motors. ill attach them with a 10mm rod or 3/8" dowel and pin the stick to it can't move. I think I'm going to go only 3 channels for now.

I've also decided the special parts and weight of the trike gear out weigh the benefits and simplicity of a tail dragger, so I will switch it back to conventional gear. going to upgrade the tail.

I really want to try a coroplast tail. I'm tempted to do a double rudder like a a-10 wart hog, but I'm unsure how it will effect the effectiveness if I space them out too far from the prop wash. I may just extend the rudder to make it a bit more effective.

with the pusher puller setup, I plan on being able to run one motor at a time, or both when I need the performance. I will run two 2200mah batteries, and y the batteries in parallel, but leave the esc on different.channels so I can fix them or initiate them separately with the flip of a switch. running this setup with two 10/5 props should only pull 20-26 amps and give me damn near 60 oz of thrust.and if I want more power, I can swap one or both motors to an 11/7 prop and get 38 oz of thrust each motor. should make it so I can keep having long flight times, and have as much power in reserve as I want.

I will probably run two 25-30 amp esc's. I want to try the new switch mode becs from heads up. I may put an extra bec tap in and set it up as a night flyer after I get it flying well.

my target flight times will be 30minutes if I hot dog it a lot, and an hour or so if I don't.

should have it up and running in a week or so, and I think it will be very interesting to see how it turns out.

I've decided I wasn't patient enough with the aleroin cut outs on the old wings. so I decided to just use two regular wings, as gws builds them. I've also decided to throw two motors mounted on the wing pylon. one will be a 480 plus pushing about 58 oz of thrust, the other will be a 450 slowfly pushing about 37 oz of thrust.

I've built up a coroplast tail. I was going to do twin rudder stabs, but decided it was way too much work with little reward. so, I went back to the stock style tail center mounted. I've added a tail wheel and it will be steerable. I am also running a 4000mah 3 cell. should be capable of handling the 50 amp or so duel power system. the plane is heavy. I needed the large battery and the heavy tail to balance things out with the motors wing pylon mounted, the weight is all in the center. should be interesting.

I will be putting an order in for some servo leads, y-splitter, and battery adapters tomorrow. I hope to have it flyable in the next week or so.

thinking I am gonna get a new 480 plus motor so I could use two of the same motor. also want to get either a separate bec or switching type built into the esc. maybe eventually fix/finish the aleroin wing. but that's all in the future.

for now, think ill get a pusher 11/7 prop so I can counter rotate the blades and the right motor/battery harness.

I am waiting for my 11x8 pusher to come in, and I came up with a stupid idea. I have full trim into my elevator.because I am still tail heavy no matter what I do. so I either need to extend motor wires, battery wires, and everything else to move the esc forwards, or add lead. I have already used a very heavy tail made of 5mm coroplast, a 60 sized.tail wheel, and.moved the.servos back pretty far. I hate adding lead, but I came up with another idea. call me crazy.

the goal behind two large motors is obviously power, but also insane.thrust numbers with little amp draw. this greatly extends flight times below 1/2 throttle. with how well two motors work, and needing more lead, I'm very tempted to try three.

my 450 880kv motor up.front with a 11x5, my 480 1000kv motor on front of the wing with a 11x8 pusher to counter rotate the props, and then a 10x10 on the rear with a 450 11000kv motor.

I have been experiencing a bit of prop stall on the rear motor because its smaller with the same pitch until I can either counter rotate it, or get a higher pitched prop. moving the air faster and faster progressively from front to rear seems like it would be much more efficient at low speeds, and would greatly increase thrust with the center motor running opposite directions. I don't think its crazy to think I could come up with well over 100oz of thrust with this setup, while weighing under 3.5 pounds. this would give me ridiculous flight times when I want them, and insane power when I don't.

I've also been toying with the idea of building up coroplast wings for a better airfoil, more strength, and faster speeds. the onlything left you could consider stock would be a gws motor mount at that point.

also been tempted to try to build another battery box to fit in the cg above the top wing and y two 2200mah motors together along with the 4000 mah battery. this would effectively give me about 8400 mah and ridiculous flight times. I know it sounds heavy, but right now I do have 1000sq inches of wing area, and many slow sticks have been built to over 2 lbs with a single wing and some bracing/reinforcements made to the wing.

they turn the same direction now. with a pusher prop, the twist of the hub goes the opposite direction, meaning it will spin the opposite way. then all I have to do is install prop, swap two motor wires.

the goal is just to kill a bit of the torque at low speeds. right now on a full throttle takeoff, the plane turns right no matter what the tail is doing. I can also do cool looking torque rolls when trying to 3d or pull out of a stall the problem is when I get close to the ground, and tap the throttle. the plane goes hard right, even though it is a flat turn, straightening it out with rudder makes it bank, leading to one wingtip touching.

they turn the same direction now. with a pusher prop, the twist of the hub goes the opposite direction, meaning it will spin the opposite way. then all I have to do is install prop, swap two motor wires.

Sorry - maybe because its late at night ...

Do you have a LEFT handed and a RIGHT handed prop fitted ? So if you look from the front both props turn to the left when rotating ? That's what IMHO is not so good ... especially with the power you are putting out.

I would put both LEFT handed props or both RIGHT handed .. so that rotation is opposite when viewed from one end and torque would be balanced ...

You also have a difference in side thrust to think about ... no longer is P such a simple spiral of air anymore !!

picked up my pusher prop. with an 11x8 on both, the same watt numbers popped up. I verified it wasn't voltage sag. I soldered deans connectors onto all of my batteries. even with 4 2200mah batteries it didn't go over 315 watts.

out of frustration, I swapped the front esc, and its a whole different animal! before it twisted so bad that one wingtip would touch. now it doesn't even seem to rock. hooked up the watt meter and pulled 49 amps and 543 watts at 11.2 volts I think.

I think ill be knocking on my goal of 95 oz of thrust and 20-30 minute flight times I don't have time to fly it today, but I'm gonna try to make it out first thing tomorrow morning. I'm hoping a 2:1 power to weight ratio is as fun as I think it could be.

I braced the lower wing to the top wing using.scotch tape and the shorter fiberglass wing braces that gws supplies. it seems to bet pretty strong. if it works out okay, I plan to make it a bit more permanent. topping off the transmitter and warming up a bit (16°!), plan to ring it out good in about an hour

this plane with the wings braced is awesome. the flat top wing seems to have given it a lot more low speed response. the plane still torques funny at wot. I'm guessing its the front motor spinning faster and producing more thrust. plenty of elevator travel. its a bit slow to take off, I think mainly due to the natural pitch down under throttle. from a dead stop it takes a good 50 feet sometimes. if its rolling even a bit, it gets off the ground in ten.

outside loops and inverted are very stable and easy. just give it full throttle and straighten it out after it half loops. lots of power, but a.bit les then I pictured. unlimited verticle, but its pretty slow to pull out of a hover.

I'm pretty happy with it though. clocked 14 minutes on a mostly wot flight and forget to set the timer for the second one. id say 30 min flights with a bit less throttle should be possible. I estimate the top speed at 50mph or so. its a really different plane to watch fly because it still slows right down. with a bit of throttle, high alpha landings are a breeze and really keep it from dropping out of the air.

the stall speed seems completely random. I may just not be used to the plane yet though.

taken it back apart. no amount of wing bracing seemed to hold it together. I ended up needing my yellow wing back for my regular stick. I also broke my motor shaft and had my tail eaten. so I took the 480 motor and coroplast tail as well.

will have some exciting updates soon though. its going to be modded for strip aleroins on the top wing minimum. I am also thinking about abandoning the dual motors. it was cool, but center of gravity and too much down thrust made it fairly difficult to handle. I will make a new coroplast tail and enlarge the rudder as well as the aleroins.

we have also been making great strides with our 3d printer. I am now using a motor mount, battery boxes and a few other peices we have made ourselves. now we are playing with carbon fiber arrow shafts and making our own landing gear and wheels after being pretty disappointed in the millennium x gear. miles above stock, but comes apart way too easy.